The best of Prog rock

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Brazil’s
supreme court has approved the investigation of dozens of politicians,
including a former president (Collor de Melo) and leaders of congress, for
alleged connections to what prosecutors call the country’s biggest ever
corruption scandal.

In total, 54
people are to be investigated, including 21 federal deputies and 12 senators —
though that figure is expected to grow as evidence is gathered on corruption
involving the state oil company Petrobras.

The
investigations and any possible trials will take years to play out, but the
action announced on Friday throws the second term of president Dilma Rousseff
into further disarray as she faces dueling political and economic crises. She
is not being investigated despite serving as chair of the Petrobras board for
several years as the kickback scheme played out.

“You can’t put this genie back in the bottle.
People are going to have to face the consequences,” said Paulo Sotero, director
of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
in Washington. “There used to be the idea that people in positions of power in
Brazil were untouchable. They’re no longer untouchable.”

Federal
investigators revealed a year ago that they had started an investigation into
the scheme, and efforts until now focused efforts on big construction and
engineering firms that allegedly paid over $800m in bribes and other funds. The
money purportedly won them inflated contracts with Petrobras and prosecutors
say some of that cash flowed into the campaign coffers of the president’s
Workers’ Party and its allies.

Among those
the high court said would now be investigated are former president and current
senator Fernando Collor, who was forced from the presidency by a corruption
scandal in 1992 before making a political comeback in recent years.

Also to be
investigated are senate leader Renan Calheiros and Eduardo Cunha, who is the
leader of the lower house. Both are members of the powerful Brazilian
Democratic Movement Party, part of the governing coalition led by the Workers’
Party. Both have already shown they are ready to create serious gridlock in
congress because of the investigation.

Ex—president Fernando Collor

Senate leader Renan Calheiros

Leader of the Lower House Eduardo Cunha

Rosemary Segurado, a political scientist at the
University of Sao Paulo, said the two congressional leaders would use the
investigation as a “bargaining chip” if Rousseff’s government fails to protect
them in some fashion, “causing problems by blocking important projects”. She
cited tax, fiscal and political reforms needed as Brazil’s economy stalls into
recession.

The scandal has seriously damaged the reputation of
Petrobras, Brazil’s largest company. It is responsible for tapping upward of
100 billion barrels of offshore oil found in recent years, wealth that leaders
have repeatedly said they view as the nation’s “passport” to achieving
developed-world status. But the debt-plagued company is struggling — it was
recently downgraded to junk status by Moody’s Investors Service and it said
this week it would sharply cut back investment and sell off assets.